The original intent was to climb Mount Athabasca via the AA col on Friday, May 10 2013 with Wietse, Scott, Kelly and myself. We planned an overnight stay at the Rampart Creek Hostel and met there on Thursday evening. Patrick Delaney, a guide with Yamnuska Mountain Adventures was also at the hostel with a client and we spent some time chatting. Patrick was concerned about the "big melt" that was going on and cautioned our group to be super-careful. We took his advice to heart and decided to get up at 02:30 and try to take advantage of colder morning temps to meet our objective safely.

After getting up and driving to the climber's parking lot we realized that Athabasca wasn't going to happen for us this particular day. It was WAY too warm. There was no overnight freeze at all. :( (It took me another 2 years to finally ascend Athabasca in perfect conditions, proving that sometimes the most valuable thing to have in mountain climbing is patience.) Plan B...

But what to do now? We basically hung around and hummed and hawed for about 2 hours until deciding to give Hilda Peak a shot. Another solo climber at the hostel had done an ascent the day before and said with good snow, it wasn't too bad (difficult scrambling). Key word? "Good snow"! We got to the Hilda Ridge parking lot and started out. The other 3 guys were on foot and I had my snowshoes on. They were screwed right from the start - Scott was sinking in knee to waist deep on a punchy crust. Plan C?

Scott, Wietse and Kelly decided to go rock climbing in Banff and I decided to go up to the high point on Parker Ridge and have a nice solo day out. It was still only around 05:30 as I worked my way up the ridge on a reasonably good snow crust (the 'shoes helped immensely with this). The birds were chirping and it felt like spring. As the sun came up in the east I made my way up to the high point on Parker Ridge's far west end. There was some steep terrain but the snow was bomber so I wasn't too concerned. IMHO nobody should claim "Parker Ridge" as a summit unless they at least attain this high point - it's a good 600+ meters elevation gain to this point and brought me almost to the same height as Big Bend Peak and Mount Saskatchewan Junior across the Saskatchewan River Valley.

[Hiking up the ridge in pre-dawn light on a firm snow crust. Hilda Peak visible here.]

I was tempted to go up another peak to the west - closer to Athabasca - but as I worked my way up very steep snow slopes, some of which were just primed to slide, I decided to cut my losses and traverse to the east end of Parker Ridge instead. The traverse was very enjoyable under a gorgeous, warm spring sun.

[A great pano showing all of the "Big Bend" peaks, Castleguard, the Saskatchewan Glacier, Athabasca, Hilda, Wilcox and Nigel among many other peaks. ++]

After completing the traverse of the entire ridge it was time to backtrack to the parking lot. I descended easy slopes to the Parker Ridge parking lot and then proceeded the extra 1km back to my truck.

[An excellent view of the Saskatchewan Glacier and Castleguard Mountain. The Castleguard Meadows are left of the shadow in the center of the photo.]

[The entire Parker Ridge from hwy 93. I traversed from right to left from the Hilda Ridge parking lot. ++]

The day was still very young and I didn't want to 'waste' such a gorgeous day or such a long drive so I decided to try "Crystal Ridge" by Bow Lake next. The only issue? I didn't have a route description and only a very vague idea where exactly it was... :)

About Me

My name is Vern Dewit. I moved to Calgary, Alberta (Canada) in 1999 and since then I've fallen in love with the spectacular scenery and grand vistas that open up as you scramble up above treeline on a beautiful fall morning, or make your first cast on some back country stream as the sun throws its golden warmth on surrounding peaks.

Goal

I hope that my trip reports and pictures will inspire you to push your own physical limits whatever those may be. You may be inspired to try scrambling - a sport where you climb mountains via non-technical ascent routes - or you may simply realize what's in your own backyard and go for a short hike somewhere.

Disclaimer / Contact

Read the trip reports carefully and don't simply follow them blindly. Make sure you're within your abilities and if you have any questions don't hesitate to send me an email.